Peaceful march marks Aung San Suu Kyi’s 63rd birthday
By admin • Jun 19th, 2008 • Category: Myanmar NewsKhonumthung News, June 19, 2008 - Burmese pro-democracy activists led by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB) today staged a peaceful march to mark the 63rd birthday of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in New Delhi, India. But the Indian police intercepted the march.
Initially, around 100 Burmese pro-democracy activists holding aloft posters of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi planned to march from Gyara Murti to Jantar Mantar near Parliament along the road outside the Burmese embassy in New Delhi.
However, before the protesters reached the road outside the Burmese embassy, the India police stopped them and bundled them in two police buses and took them to Jantar Mantar.
“They (Indian police) said the road we are marching on is in a restricted area. So, they put all of us in two police buses and dropped us at Jantar Mantar,” a protester said.
The peaceful marchers held a brief demonstration at Jantar Mantar demanding that the Burmese regime free Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners. They rejected the constitution endorsed by the military regime.
Inside Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is said to have marked her birthday by offering 64 yellow roses to Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon through one of her party, the National League for Democracy, member.
Aung San Suu Kyi is being kept under house arrest since the Burmese military regime’s supporters attacked her convoy near Depayin in northwestern Burma on May 30, 2003.
The regime extended Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention period for another year after being detained for five years in her villa by the Inya Lake.
WLB said the junta’s extension of her detention by another year is illegal and breaches its own law since the state protection act law promulgated in 1975 prohibits that a person under a condition like Aung San Suu Kyi can be detained for more than five years.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has already completed her five year detention period on May 27, 2008. She has been under house arrest for over 13 years of 19 years in Burma.
